


Life After Dave

by RebaK1tten



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Dave dies, Dave's a vampire, Kink Meme, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-24
Updated: 2013-06-24
Packaged: 2017-12-15 23:42:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/855313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RebaK1tten/pseuds/RebaK1tten
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the Kink meme on LJ, originally late 2011.  Request is Dave's a vampire, no sparkles please.  </p>
<p>I've been working on the "sequel" from Dave's POV forever, hoping posting this here makes me finish it!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Life After Dave

Everyone was worried about Spencer.   Everyone expected him to mourn; you don’t just shrug off your husband being murdered in front of you.  But for the first few months, he was so horribly depressed that he was almost unable to function.

After the funeral, he stayed in Chicago with Dave’s family.  They had adopted Spencer as their own, especially when they learned his mother had passed recently.  When Dave first introduced them to his younger, male lover it was met with a collective sigh and a shrug.  His family didn’t expect it to last and thought that the handsome young man would quickly tire of Dave’s moods and ego.  He didn’t.  Spencer stayed around and as they grew to trust each other, Dave was able to let down his guard.  And it helped that Spencer didn’t hesitate to tell Dave to quit being an asshole, quit expecting him to leave and have a little faith in the two of them. 

Their wedding had been amazing.  It achieved the goal of a fun party and something truly romantic and meaningful.  There had been over 300 people there and about 80 of them were Rossi’s and Rossi-in-laws.  Both Dave and Spencer had the same pictures from their wedding framed on their desks.  One side with all the Rossi’s together, Dave and Spencer in the middle and everyone with their glass raised in a toast.  Dave rented bleachers so everyone could be seen.   The other picture was a candid shot that Garcia took towards the end of the evening.  They both have their ties loosened and Spencer’s hair is tousled from the Rossi family hugs he’s gotten all evening.  They’re looking at each other and Dave is smiling like a lunatic and Spencer is caught in mid-laugh and they look so happy and healthy and like they’re a couple who will be together forever.

Seven months later, Nathan Harris was released from custody.  One month after that, he stopped taking his medications.  He decided he needed to kill Spencer for letting him live and he attacked the two of them outside Quantico.  Nathan had an 8 inch hunting knife which easily went through Dave’s sport coat and he bled out, in Spencer’s arms, while waiting for the ambulance.

Spencer stayed in Chicago for just over a month.  While he was gone, Dave’s family helped with the packing and sale of their house and helped Spencer find a new townhouse close to work.  He certainly wasn’t hurting for money, but that was beside the point.  He didn’t want to live in the large empty house where he and Dave had made their life for the past two and a half years.  His only requirement for the townhouse is that he could keep their dog, Mudgie.

When Spencer finally returned to work, he was quiet and subdued.  His friends had packed up Dave’s office while he was gone so Spencer didn’t have to deal with it.  He took the boxes and stored them in the new house, and the only thing he unpacked was the picture from the wedding that matched the one on his desk.  That was kept on the fireplace mantel, along with a picture of Spencer’s mom and a picture of the team taken at a holiday party.

Spencer was never overly social at work, and most people gave him a small smile or pat on the shoulder and left him alone.  Anyone who made an inappropriate comment, whether it was within his earshot or not, ended up having a quiet chat with Morgan; further comments were kept outside of work and the offending party generally avoided Morgan thereafter.

Hotch kept Spencer in the office for a while, letting him work from Garcia’s office when the team went out.  This lasted for a few cases, until Spencer asked Hotch if he was on probation or something.  Hotch told Spencer he thought he might want some time to get used to working again and may not want to travel.  Spencer smiled slightly and said that he wouldn’t mind being away from home for a bit and asked what was needed to get travel clearance.   A few days confirming he was okay on both hand-to-hand and shooting proficiency and he was traveling with the team again.

It was a little like when he had first started.  Spencer seemed awkward, unsure what to do with his hands, unwilling or unable to maintain eye contact.  More than once, someone saw him turn and start to say something to someone and then stop when he realized that the person he wanted wasn’t there.

However, he was not a 22 year old; he was 30 and while he was clearly in pain, he did what the others on his team had done when their lives had taken a 180 degree turn.  He worked.  When he shared a hotel room with someone, he was the last to turn off the light, studying cases, looking at maps, reading, reviewing, and checking things on the internet until his roommate would insist that they both need rest.  When he rooms alone, the suspicion is that he doesn’t sleep at all.  He lost weight and the circles under his eyes were even darker than usual.

This was the pattern for about eight months after he resumed working.  They got back from a long case, and Hotch told everyone to take a three-day weekend to recover.  Emily, Garcia and Morgan tried to convince Spencer to go out for a couple of drinks, but he politely refused, sighting his need to pick up Mudgie from the neighbor.  It was what they expected, and they were slightly encouraged when Spencer smiled and wished them a good weekend before he left.

On Monday after the long weekend, he seemed different.  Mostly it was that he smiled more frequently.  He seemed distracted, but they were used to that before Dave had died. Being a genius, it’s easy to find things that distract you. 

This pattern continued for the immediate future.  Spencer worked hard and provided the usual, critical insight on cases.  His mood at work improved, he made small overtures of friendship to the team, but he remained anti-social off work hours. 

There were two things that worried his friends – first, he clearly still wasn’t sleeping.  He’d come in, even after a weekend, looking more and more tired.  He had lost a bit of weight and the circles under his eyes were a permanent feature that never got better.  Sometimes on the jet, he’d fall asleep so hard that was difficult to wake him when they reached their destination.  Sometimes he’d mutter Dave’s name in his sleep. 

The second thing, possibly related to the first, was his new habit of taking files home with him. Sometimes cold cases, but sometimes the overflow that they were unable to review.  In their jobs, they were used to having to pick who they would help, knowing that they were leaving some other person, some other city’s police force without desperately needed guidance.  Spencer took some of the files (with Hotch’s permission of course – what could he say?) home and came back a day or so later with a written report that could be emailed to the requesting department.  Sometimes it helped, and Hotch heard back that the profile was useful.  Almost half of the time, he was advised that the unsub appeared to have just quit, or they found a body and matched the DNA to their crimes.  So thanks for the work, and sorry to have troubled you.  When Hotch told Spencer these results, Spencer just smiled and said that as long as the killing stopped, he didn’t feel he was wasting his time and could he take a few more files with him.

After a couple of months of this, even Strauss noticed that they had more cases cleared and she had received comments from some other departments.  She had never felt comfortable around Dr. Reid; he was too odd, too smart and she had some tiny feeling that Dave would have remained straight if Reid hadn’t have done something, although she didn’t know what that was.  Regardless, she approached Hotch and asked if Dr. Reid might be willing to take more of the cold cases and do more reviews of the cases that always backlogged them.  Hotch said he’d ask, but told her that Reid liked being out in the field, so he doubted he would want to remain office-bound.

To Hotch’s surprise, Reid jumped on the opportunity, telling Hotch that he was starting to feel more like himself and he doesn’t mind staying at home.  He would always be available by phone for the team, but he could do a lot with the files.  Hotch said if he wanted to, Spencer could work from his house.  If he wasn’t needed to travel, it wouldn’t be a problem.  Spencer jumped at the opportunity, telling Hotch that he was less distracted at home and besides, Mudgie would be happy.

So this was the way the team worked for a bit.   Spencer consulted from the office or worked on case reviews at his house.   The one year anniversary of Dave’s death passed, Spencer took a couple of days off, but came back not too much worse for the wear.  He had become paler still and hadn’t gained back much of the weight he’d lost just after Dave’s death.  And of course he looks like he never sleeps, but when they see him, he seems … content.  Not joking as he did when he was with Dave, but certainly not a walking catatonic either.

Shortly after this, Hotch reviews personnel files and sees Spencer hasn’t taken any of his annual leave.  He calls Spencer into his office, and if there’s a man who should take some time off, it’s him.

Surprisingly, Spencer doesn’t object.  He tells Hotch that he was thinking of going to Chicago to visit Dave’s family for a bit.   Later, Hotch reminds himself that he told Spencer to sit down and asked him how is he is doing, how he’s _really_ doing and if he’s okay.  Spencer says he’s doing okay considering.  Things are a little easier and he’s glad that he has people who ask.  He smiles and before he leaves, Spencer suddenly turns around and hugs Hotch and says that he appreciates everything Hotch has done for him and that he’s a great friend. 

Spencer packs up at the end of the day and Hotch watches him say good-bye to his teammates, who wish him a good vacation.  He hugs everyone and gives another smile to Hotch as he walks out.

He’s supposed to be gone for a month, four weeks.  They don’t hear from him while he’s gone, that’s to be expected.  It’s vacation, and unless there’s a national emergency, they won’t call him.  He’s expected in the office on the Monday he’s due back to pick up his assignments and files.   Hotch isn’t worried when he isn’t in at 8 am.  By 8.30, he’s getting worried and by 9.00 he’s given his emergency key to Morgan and asked him to go check.  Morgan calls shortly after and tells Hotch to come over, something’s very wrong.

Spencer is gone and there’s a note on his bed that says, “I’m sorry, but it wasn’t really living anyway without Dave.”

Over the next few days, they find a few things.  Mudgie is gone; he’s not at a kennel and not with any of the neighbors who usually take care of him.  Spencer’s messenger bag and laptop are gone.  The pictures on top of the mantel are gone.  Nothing else is missing.

On his pillow, the crime scene team find four drops of blood; tests show they’re from Spencer, from different time periods.  One is a few months old and washed several times.  Two are slightly newer and one seems to be within days of his going missing.

They talk with his neighbor down the hall.  She says that she saw Dr. Reid leave with the dark haired man with the goatee two nights ago.  He’s been coming around for the last few months and she only noticed him because of the way the dog, who is usually so quiet, originally barked and whined at him.  Prentiss shows her a picture of Dave from her cell phone and the woman says it looks a lot like the man who left with Spencer and the dog, except the man was very pale. 

His friends know that Spencer doesn’t believe in heaven or in God.  They hope that wherever he is, he’s with Dave. 


End file.
